Is religion a force for good in the world?

Excluding the existence of any supernatural powers, or any comment whatsoever on the fallacy or truth of religious belief, and based only what we have seen [i]as a direct result of religion in this world[/i], can we see that religion is a positive or negative influence on the world as we know it?

Replies to This Discussion

Organized religion is the cause of most of the problems I have with religion. Look at how the Catholic Church behaves when you give it power, it kills people, molests small children, and a bunch of other things. We have enough problems concerning hierarchies without giving power to more people who don't deserve it. Other groups like the Mormons fights against homosexuality, and own the boyscouts (who still receive public funding). It even bothers me when small churches sucker in lonely people as if they were a cult. Oh and I hate those preachers who get paid a shitton of money writing books, making audio tapes and then go back on tv to ask for more.

There are more problems that I can't think of because I feel really out of it. Whatever.

Some people go to the extremes, like the muslims that committed 9/11 as they feel their religion justifies it. Obviously committing mass genocide is a terrible thing and nothing can justify it. But to be honest, I feel at least, someone with the mental capacity and also the sheer will it takes to go out and commit something like genocide, will find some sort of reason to do so.

But you get some people who can follow religion and all that happens is they use the teaching to become better people. And that is one of the core reason religions follow their set rules. 1. Because their god or whatever they worship requires these rules. 2. Like the teachings of Jesus such as "do to others what you wish them to do to you", they are generally made because they will make better people out of the people who follow that rule.

So really religion is really a double edged sword. As many people have already said before me in this thread it's very good for making better people... but then you get extremists. So I don't know, religion good or bad? I can't tell to be truthful with you.

For me religion helps me be a better person. It helps me reflect over right and wrong and offers a unique community that gives me comfort, understanding and happiness. The result of me felling happy and understood is me being able to help others and in that way me being a force of good in the world.

But of course their are people that use religion or get influenced by it in a bad way. I just know that my church makes me feel good and welcome everyone despite etnisity, sexual orientation, gender or whatever! They respect other religions and beliefs and accepts everyone.

I honestly don't know if religion contributes with more good things then bad things, or the opposite. I think that the most important question is not whether or not religion is good in the world but how religion affect you. If it helps you or people around you, it's probably a good thing. If it doesn't you should find something els to believe whether it's a church, a God or something completely different.

From my perspective... religion is a pair of rose-colored glasses. A way to explain what the fuck the world is all about without having to think too hard, because, I mean, all the answers are in this old book, right? That old guy wearing a dress knows it all, correct? What stumps me is how far some people are willing to go to protect their delusions. There's a dude in the sky watching all of us at the same time, reading all our minds and judging us for it, punishing us for what we can't help, because hey, he made us this way, but we have to thank him for our blessings when people are starving and being evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, finding out they have terminal illnesses? Ugh. It kind of pisses me off.

But on the other hand, I'd give anything to be able to find those rose-colored glasses again. What a lovely way to view the world. I lost mine when I was eight.

Years of monastic study and intense contemplation keep people from "thinking too hard?" I think you--and most people on the forum so far--aren't talking about "religion" at all, but specifically contemporary perversions of Christianity. Try going to a Buddhist monk, or a responsible Christian with even a modicum of theological interest, and you'll find someone who likes "thinking hard" about the world we live in.

the 3 main religions (Judaism Islam and Christianity) that people think of have all done a lot of bad in the world, but as far as i can tell Buddhism and other smaller eastern religions have done a lot of good. so some are good some are bad. i don't think it really matters what faith someone is as long as they take responsibility for their own actions

the 3 main religions (Judaism Islam and Christianity) that people think of have all done a lot of bad in the world, but as far as i can tell Buddhism and other smaller eastern religions have done a lot of good.

Judaism is a main religion and Buddhism and other Eastern religions are small? Hinduism is the world's third largest religion, followed by Buddhism. Judaism makes up less than a quarter of a percent of the world's population.

"No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual’s individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol — cross or crescent or whatever — that symbol is man’s reminder of his duty inside the human race. Its various allegories are the charts against which he measures himself and learns to know what he is. It cannot teach a man to be good as the textbook teaches him mathematics. It shows him how to discover himself, evolve for himself a moral codes and standard within his capacities and aspirations, by giving him a matchless example of suffering and sacrifice and the promise of hope."

But how can we rely on the teachings of our faith to be reliable and "good." Is there a universal moral code that we should all heed by? For there are faults in any book of faith, the bible included, that have to due with the time period or the customs back then. How can we know that if we follow a guideline of rules, those rules aren't corrupts at all?